Involvement of node attributes in the link formation process into a telecommunication network

Abstract

Traditional network generation models aim to replicate global structural properties observed on various real-world networks through synthetic link formation mechanisms such as triadic closure or preferential attachment. Nowadays, the large amount of data available allow to study more precisely the link formation processes and to compare models with real situations. In this work, we analyze the network formed by the communication activities of the users of a telephony operator for studying the link formation process. Our goal is to identify the underlying formation mechanisms and checking if they match those proposed in traditional models. Indeed, the communications emitted and received by users are strong indicators for understanding the underlying patterns of the link formation process and highlighting how some individual properties induce the formation process in such a network. In a first study conducted at a global level, we show that the traditional mechanisms commonly used in network generation models cannot reproduce alone the link formation in this network. In a second study, we adopt a new point of view and analyze locally the link formation process by searching for correlations between some user attributes and the formation of the new links. The results obtained show that a very strong percentage of new links are formed between individuals with strong similarity.